Former EliteXC champ K.J. Noons drops decision in weekend boxing bout

Former EliteXC champ K.J. Noons' stumbled in his return to boxing on Saturday when he suffered a unanimous-decision loss to James Countryman at TKO Boxing's "3 The Hard Way" event at U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati.

The well-matched fight proved one of the top bouts from the six-fight card, though Noons suffered losing scores of losing scores of 59-55, 58-56 and 58-56 while snapping a four-fight win streak.

The bout was Noons' first boxing match since his unanimous-decision win over Alejandro Bogarin (8-7-3) in November.

Noons was carrying a three-fight MMA win streak, which included a victory over Nick Diaz for the first-ever EliteXC lightweight title, when a conflict with ProElite management resulted in the former EliteXC 160-pound champion being stripped of the title in late 2008. He then announced his intentions of returning to boxing, where he turned pro in 2004.

If medically cleared, Noons is expected to box Matt Vanda (39-9) on April 18 in Minneapolis.

However, in a recent interview with MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com), Noons said he's not ruling out a return to MMA.

KJ Noons = The only person to get people on this site to take Gary Shaw's side in a dispute.

cowcatcher

3/23/09 1:12:46PM

Posted by ncordless

KJ Noons = The only person to get people on this site to take Gary Shaw's side in a dispute.

QFT

DCRage

3/23/09 1:15:58PM

Posted by cowcatcher

Posted by Styles

Why exactly was he stripped the title?

he refused to defend it against nick diaz

To add to this, he apparently wanted to defend against Eddie Alvarez first before anyone else.

MFOTHER

3/23/09 3:19:31PM

Posted by DCRage

Posted by cowcatcher

Posted by Styles

Why exactly was he stripped the title?

he refused to defend it against nick diaz

To add to this, he apparently wanted to defend against Eddie Alvarez first before anyone else.

a lot of pople thought that was his excuse. Eddie was about to, or had just gotten married at the time, and wanted time off, and wasnt even signed with proelite!

pv3Hpv3p

3/23/09 4:20:00PM

Didn't know he was coming to fight Vanda... I might actually go check this out... He's (Matt Vanda) is like a legend on the East Side where I live... He hasn't done the best of late, but usually seems to perform well in front of his hometown crowd... Might be a good fight...

Woulda liked to see Noons fight Diaz again or Alvarez... But to be honest, I'd rather watch Alvarez fight Diaz, EXC title or no...